In Wales, an artist sews names of Gaza’s infant victims on christening gown

Diana Williams embroiders the names of 300 babies killed by Israel onto a gown, an evocative work she hopes will reach New York.London, United Kingdom – To Diana Williams, a Welsh artist, a baby’s christening gown signifies purity and innocence.Last year, she chose the dress as a way to pay tribute to some of the babies killed during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Young Palestinian artists from Gaza exhibit work shaped by warlist 2 of 4Gaza at the Venice Biennale: Where language falls short, threads take overlist 3 of 4Nakba: Jewish voices are challenging the stories Israel tells about itselflist 4 of 4‘Not against Jews’: UK artist defends exhibition after cancellationend of listShe bought a vintage gown and in red thread embroidered it with the names of 300 victims.“I’ve used it as a blank canvas, really,” she told Al Jazeera.She immersed the hem in a harsh cleaning product to fray the ends.“I wanted it torn and ragged to represent the conditions in which these people live under.“When it’s actually hanging, the threads drop the viewer to the bottom where you can sense the profound loss, really, because they sort of pool at the bottom.“It sort of resembles a bit like a pool of blood.”More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza since late 2023 [Courtesy of Diana Williams]Williams, a retired art lecturer, said she was “compelled” to make the artwork “for people to actually grasp the enormity of what is actually happening”.It is titled Know Their Names after an interactive series of databases compiled by Al Jazeera naming some of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli attacks. In January 2024, a long list included the names and ages of some of the children who were known at the time to have been killed in Gaza. Overall, Israel’s attacks since the start of its latest war on Gaza in 2023" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="123631" data-entity-type="event">October 2023 have killed more than 20,000 children.The gown created by Williams features the names of babies under the age of one such as Sara, Elias, Mai and Mona.